Tune in live at 11 10 AM EST to MSNBC this morning. I will be discussing some current issues.
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Friday, August 20, 2010
How can i manage a bongus internet review that's harming my business
How can I manage a bogus internet review that's harming my business?
My veterinary hospital performs humane euthanasias for a local municipality. While this is sad, sometimes it is necessary and it is legal. A local dog rescue group has posted false reviews online about my business.
Asked by Loramiller
Posted: Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Found in Advertising & PR
More answers by Michael Kaleikini Answer by Michael Kaleikini
First off, if you truly wish to erase the awful comments that are being made, you may wish to invest in a paid listing on the reviews site for a couple reasons:
1. You'll be able to find the people that you are looking for.
2. You will have a paid listing for your business that could get you more good exposure and it may help get your rankings up in the search engines.
So here are a couple thoughts I have about this as I have had to deal with issues of this nature in the past with a couple of former clients.
If you are worried about getting rid of a bad review that someone has written on the bathroom wall, you're wasting your time. It's not coming off no matter what the cost. Once something has been indexed the only way to get it out of sight is to write article after article that promotes your business using the same keywords they are using to harass your business.
Let's face it, the internet is the easiest place to throw up anything you want in regards to a business. We actually had to hire writers to help create a ton of articles to stay ahead of the people that were trying to bang up my clients. It was nerve racking, but we got it done over a period of about six months. It may be much easier to just ignore it, and allow people to come see for themselves how it is humane and how you help animals legally find peace when necessary.
Another thing you can do is launch a PR campaign that will allow your story to get out on the news and into your community. Make sure you get a copy of it and post it to YouTube.
One more thing, I understand your concern, but sometimes this type of publicity makes more for opportunity than hardship. Look at this is for what it is. A mere smear campaign that won't really affect the smart, especially when you educate them with the truth.
Michael H Kaleikini is a business development consultant and VP of Marketing and Business development with Corporate Rain Makers, LLC in Las Vegas, Nev.
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
My veterinary hospital performs humane euthanasias for a local municipality. While this is sad, sometimes it is necessary and it is legal. A local dog rescue group has posted false reviews online about my business.
Asked by Loramiller
Posted: Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Found in Advertising & PR
More answers by Michael Kaleikini Answer by Michael Kaleikini
First off, if you truly wish to erase the awful comments that are being made, you may wish to invest in a paid listing on the reviews site for a couple reasons:
1. You'll be able to find the people that you are looking for.
2. You will have a paid listing for your business that could get you more good exposure and it may help get your rankings up in the search engines.
So here are a couple thoughts I have about this as I have had to deal with issues of this nature in the past with a couple of former clients.
If you are worried about getting rid of a bad review that someone has written on the bathroom wall, you're wasting your time. It's not coming off no matter what the cost. Once something has been indexed the only way to get it out of sight is to write article after article that promotes your business using the same keywords they are using to harass your business.
Let's face it, the internet is the easiest place to throw up anything you want in regards to a business. We actually had to hire writers to help create a ton of articles to stay ahead of the people that were trying to bang up my clients. It was nerve racking, but we got it done over a period of about six months. It may be much easier to just ignore it, and allow people to come see for themselves how it is humane and how you help animals legally find peace when necessary.
Another thing you can do is launch a PR campaign that will allow your story to get out on the news and into your community. Make sure you get a copy of it and post it to YouTube.
One more thing, I understand your concern, but sometimes this type of publicity makes more for opportunity than hardship. Look at this is for what it is. A mere smear campaign that won't really affect the smart, especially when you educate them with the truth.
Michael H Kaleikini is a business development consultant and VP of Marketing and Business development with Corporate Rain Makers, LLC in Las Vegas, Nev.
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Michael Baisden Update
Twitter fans be sure to post on baisdenlive on FB and tell all your friends we're doing some serious networking on Facebook and twitter
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
President Obama
Information from the Commander in Chief President Obama check it out the link for further information.
Let’s put aside partisanship and work together for small businesses, employees, and the communities that depend on them. http://j.mp/dot0uc
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Let’s put aside partisanship and work together for small businesses, employees, and the communities that depend on them. http://j.mp/dot0uc
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
How Sweet It Is
What a very sweet business story, you must read from Black Entreprise Magazine by Alfred Edmond Jr feature with Angelique Westerfield interviewing . Andra Hall, founder and co-owner, along with husband Curtis Hall, of CamiCakes.
Not just a typical story of someone in a dead-end job needing another chapter in their lives. But a husband and wife who's daughter needs brought about a new chapter in their lives.
How Sweet It Is
A health hardship leads to cupcake commerce
Black Entreprise Magazine
Written By:Alfred Edmond Jr.
This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Angelique Westerfield speaks with Andra Hall, founder and co-owner, along with husband Curtis Hall, of CamiCakes, a baked-goods company that generated $1.1 million in revenues in 2009. With locations in Orange Park, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla; and Atlanta, Hall shares how she launched her business while working the graveyard shift at a local hotel.
For Andra Hall, entrepreneurship was a matter of medical necessity. In 2004, her 1-year-old daughter underwent a string of surgeries to correct a severe case of sleep apnea. “I did major soul-searching to come up with something that would be flexible enough to let me be there when Camille needed me,” she recalls.
Settling on her longtime interest in baking, Hall created a business plan and by 2006, she and her husband, Curtis, refinanced their house to obtain the $40,000 they needed to launch CamiCakes Cupcakes (www.camicakes.com; 404-748-4288). The money allowed them to buy secondhand equipment, create marketing materials, and put down a security deposit on the Orange Park, Florida, space they would rent.
In 2008, another store opened in Jacksonville, Florida, and a third store the following year in Atlanta. CamiCakes, named for the couple’s daughter, generated $1.1 million in revenues in 2009 and anticipates $2 million by year-end. But Hall’s path to business ownership wasn’t all sweet.
With 18 cupcake flavors—the most popular being red velvet, sweet potato, and carrot cake—CamiCakes’ rapid growth was one of Hall’s greatest challenges.
The baking began each day at 6 a.m., and the doors were open to customers from 10:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. When she opened the Georgia store, Hall drove the 350 miles between there and the Florida stores to oversee the baking and customer service in each store and handle all the paperwork. “I was just doing too much,” the 38-year-old recalls. “And then I got really, really sick and was down for more than two weeks.”
At that point, Hall knew she had to come up with a way to make sure each store could run without her constant attention. First, over the course of two months, she created a manual of operations so each store would have the same written standard operating procedures ranging from the recipes used to the steps to take if a register went down. “I’m more of a do er, so it was a challenge to have to stop and make sure everything was clearly documented for other people to understand,” Hall says.
Next, she chose one store to focus most of her energy on. Because Atlanta was the biggest market and the store there was the most profitable, Hall moved her family there and established it as CamiCakes’ headquarters. The third step, loosening the reins, was the hardest. Hall made the transition somewhat easier by hiring from within rather than seeking outsiders to manage the Florida stores. “I had faith that they could do the job,” she says.
Even with delegating some of the work, Hall has a lot to keep her occupied. She balances raising a now healthy 6-year-old Camille with managing her growing empire. By fall, she will launch a van that travels to festivals, parties, and conferences. Besides bringing the cupcakes to where the crowds are, it will give CamiCakes another mode of advertising and should increase in-store sales by at least 10%. “A store, excluding salaries, for us is about $7,000 or $8,000 a month,” she adds about the savings in overhead.
Hall is also scouting out other cities in the Southeast to expand the 30-employee firm. But no matter how much success she experiences, Hall says nothing is better than spending her days doing something she loves. “Being able to make a living from it is just the cherry on top.”
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Not just a typical story of someone in a dead-end job needing another chapter in their lives. But a husband and wife who's daughter needs brought about a new chapter in their lives.
How Sweet It Is
A health hardship leads to cupcake commerce
Black Entreprise Magazine
Written By:Alfred Edmond Jr.
This week on The Urban Business Roundtable, UBR Contributor Angelique Westerfield speaks with Andra Hall, founder and co-owner, along with husband Curtis Hall, of CamiCakes, a baked-goods company that generated $1.1 million in revenues in 2009. With locations in Orange Park, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla; and Atlanta, Hall shares how she launched her business while working the graveyard shift at a local hotel.
For Andra Hall, entrepreneurship was a matter of medical necessity. In 2004, her 1-year-old daughter underwent a string of surgeries to correct a severe case of sleep apnea. “I did major soul-searching to come up with something that would be flexible enough to let me be there when Camille needed me,” she recalls.
Settling on her longtime interest in baking, Hall created a business plan and by 2006, she and her husband, Curtis, refinanced their house to obtain the $40,000 they needed to launch CamiCakes Cupcakes (www.camicakes.com; 404-748-4288). The money allowed them to buy secondhand equipment, create marketing materials, and put down a security deposit on the Orange Park, Florida, space they would rent.
In 2008, another store opened in Jacksonville, Florida, and a third store the following year in Atlanta. CamiCakes, named for the couple’s daughter, generated $1.1 million in revenues in 2009 and anticipates $2 million by year-end. But Hall’s path to business ownership wasn’t all sweet.
With 18 cupcake flavors—the most popular being red velvet, sweet potato, and carrot cake—CamiCakes’ rapid growth was one of Hall’s greatest challenges.
The baking began each day at 6 a.m., and the doors were open to customers from 10:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. When she opened the Georgia store, Hall drove the 350 miles between there and the Florida stores to oversee the baking and customer service in each store and handle all the paperwork. “I was just doing too much,” the 38-year-old recalls. “And then I got really, really sick and was down for more than two weeks.”
At that point, Hall knew she had to come up with a way to make sure each store could run without her constant attention. First, over the course of two months, she created a manual of operations so each store would have the same written standard operating procedures ranging from the recipes used to the steps to take if a register went down. “I’m more of a do er, so it was a challenge to have to stop and make sure everything was clearly documented for other people to understand,” Hall says.
Next, she chose one store to focus most of her energy on. Because Atlanta was the biggest market and the store there was the most profitable, Hall moved her family there and established it as CamiCakes’ headquarters. The third step, loosening the reins, was the hardest. Hall made the transition somewhat easier by hiring from within rather than seeking outsiders to manage the Florida stores. “I had faith that they could do the job,” she says.
Even with delegating some of the work, Hall has a lot to keep her occupied. She balances raising a now healthy 6-year-old Camille with managing her growing empire. By fall, she will launch a van that travels to festivals, parties, and conferences. Besides bringing the cupcakes to where the crowds are, it will give CamiCakes another mode of advertising and should increase in-store sales by at least 10%. “A store, excluding salaries, for us is about $7,000 or $8,000 a month,” she adds about the savings in overhead.
Hall is also scouting out other cities in the Southeast to expand the 30-employee firm. But no matter how much success she experiences, Hall says nothing is better than spending her days doing something she loves. “Being able to make a living from it is just the cherry on top.”
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
How to get a Green E-Business Off the Ground
Just when you thought of all the businesses you can start or go into how about a Green E-business, Steffany from Entrepreneur Magazine offers lots information on starting an Green E-Business.
How to Get a Green E-Business Off the Ground
The keys are market research, a suitable partner and a reliable website.
Entrepreneur Magazine
By: Steffany Boldrini
08/15/2010
If you're thinking about starting a green e-business, the first thing I'd ask is: Are you really passionate about this way of life? Because if you're just doing it for the hype, you won't get very far. I constantly see companies "greenwashing," saying they're "green" when they're pretty much "black." This catches up with them sooner than they think.
Now that we're clear about that, let's get to the fun part: starting your green e-business. I launched EcoBold.com about seven months ago, when I posted my first video review of a green product. But I had been working on it for at least a couple of years from idea to launch. I expect to be profitable by the end of the year, through selling the products I review at a small profit, and charging companies that want to reach green-oriented buyers.
My initial idea (accompanied by a full-blown business plan) was to be the Amazon.com of green products. But it wasn't so easy: I searched for a partner who could do the website coding, but I couldn't find anyone as driven, hard-working and passionate about the subject as I was. When I thought I had found someone, he ultimately chose a different path. I didn't give up: I just shifted my focus to what I could do on my own.
Here's what I've learned about starting a green e-business and how to make your dream become a reality.
1.Market research. The first thing you'll have to do is conduct market research for the kind of service or product you're thinking of providing. Beware, ladies--there are many, many handbag, clothing and skin-care resellers out there already; these industries are currently oversaturated, even in the green world.
What you need to do is find a niche. Right now there are many opportunities and untapped markets, so your imagination can run wild. I recently came across a company that's making 100 percent natural and safe pesticides, and the product is already being sold at Home Depot and Walmart. It's the only safe pesticide I've seen to date.
Here are some additional ideas: What do you use right now that could be made with bamboo? Or with biodegradable materials? How about hemp, or recycled bottles? These are all sustainable materials that can be used to make exotic and eco-friendly new products.
If fashion or personal care is truly your passion, find something that hasn't been done before or where you'd have very few competitors. For example: I've never seen a bikini made out of recycled materials or a nail polish that's 100 percent safe.
2.Look for a partner. Before I started my business, I looked everywhere: high-tech meet-ups, green conferences, Craigslist and college competitions. I met with more than 25 people, and none of them felt like a good fit. As exhausting as the search is, you have to be as picky as you'd be marrying someone, because you'll likely be spending a lot more time with your business partner than with your significant other. And unless you have thousands of dollars to pay employees, you'll need to share the load with someone. There are so many things you'll be doing. I'm still looking for a partner because I truly believe it's essential to get your business to great places.
3.Hire someone to build your website. Make sure you know exactly what you want, where you want it, and what you want to happen when visitors click a link. If you have friends who can recommend someone reliable and inexpensive, that's ideal and will save you a lot of time. If not, you can post your job on Craigslist, Odesk.com and vWorker.com.
Make sure your ad states exactly what you want, and ask for a quote. I got quotes ranging from $200 to $5,000. Yes, I went with the $200, and everything I wanted was done. One last thing--if you can manage to work with someone here in the United States, I'd strongly recommend that. I've worked with people outside of the country, and the language barrier and time differences cost me a lot more than I thought they would. It wasn't worth it.
Now it's time to launch. Here are the first things I did when I launched:
1.Send all friends a personalized e-mail telling them what you're doing and asking them to support you and subscribe, and "Digg" it, Facebook it or tweet it.
2.Create a Facebook fan page (for a guide on how to create a page, watch this video), and invite all your friends to join.
3.Create a Twitter account and start following and interacting with people in the industry. An easy way to find them is to search for who's talking about green. You can find out through this site.
4.Send all of your other contacts a personalized e-mail (at the least, include their first name in the e-mail).
5.Start contacting people in the industry and get them talking about your website. Google "top 100 green blogs" and e-mail every one of them; try to find the reporter's contact information instead of sending an e-mail through the blog's "contact us" form.
6.Contact local journalists and radio stations and tell them how your site will be beneficial to their readers or listeners.
7.Contact companies that might be interested in your product or service. One of my favorite resources is the Green Festival. Find one near you and connect with the vendors there. You might even want to have a booth if you have the funds. You can also share a booth with another company and split the cost. One last hint: If you're in the San Francisco area, the best time to have a booth is at the November event.
With time, you'll see that you have too many things to juggle as an entrepreneur, and you need help. The problem will be money to pay for it. My solution has been to post offers for nonpaid internships at local colleges. That doesn't mean an intern will be your personal secretary. You have to be a teacher; you have to guide the intern and be a mentor to him or her. The current economy means it's a good time to find great interns.
A few last thoughts:
Remember that your biggest problem can become your biggest asset. Just hang in there and look for a solution. I searched for a partner for more than a year until I realized I just couldn't wait for a "marriageable" partner. That's when I came up with the idea of doing video reviews.
I researched the idea and realized no one else was doing it. So I found a student who was willing to shoot the reviews. I requested samples from the companies I'd been researching for the previous two years, and we shot about 20 reviews in a couple of weeks. When the videos somehow disappeared from the student's camera, I shed a few tears, then realized I had to buy my own camera equipment and learn how to edit. My website became a bigger success than it probably would have had I stuck with my original idea of simply providing a written description to sell the products.
First lesson learned: If there's a will, there's a way.
EcoBold is only a few months old, but it has come a long way from that first video. Recently, we launched green coupons. Since we're on track to become profitable by the end of the year, maybe one day we will become the Amazon.com of green products.
Steffany Boldrini is the founder of EcoBold.com, which does video reviews of green products and interviews green manufacturers. Boldrini's goal is to make all green products affordable for everyone.
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
How to Get a Green E-Business Off the Ground
The keys are market research, a suitable partner and a reliable website.
Entrepreneur Magazine
By: Steffany Boldrini
08/15/2010
If you're thinking about starting a green e-business, the first thing I'd ask is: Are you really passionate about this way of life? Because if you're just doing it for the hype, you won't get very far. I constantly see companies "greenwashing," saying they're "green" when they're pretty much "black." This catches up with them sooner than they think.
Now that we're clear about that, let's get to the fun part: starting your green e-business. I launched EcoBold.com about seven months ago, when I posted my first video review of a green product. But I had been working on it for at least a couple of years from idea to launch. I expect to be profitable by the end of the year, through selling the products I review at a small profit, and charging companies that want to reach green-oriented buyers.
My initial idea (accompanied by a full-blown business plan) was to be the Amazon.com of green products. But it wasn't so easy: I searched for a partner who could do the website coding, but I couldn't find anyone as driven, hard-working and passionate about the subject as I was. When I thought I had found someone, he ultimately chose a different path. I didn't give up: I just shifted my focus to what I could do on my own.
Here's what I've learned about starting a green e-business and how to make your dream become a reality.
1.Market research. The first thing you'll have to do is conduct market research for the kind of service or product you're thinking of providing. Beware, ladies--there are many, many handbag, clothing and skin-care resellers out there already; these industries are currently oversaturated, even in the green world.
What you need to do is find a niche. Right now there are many opportunities and untapped markets, so your imagination can run wild. I recently came across a company that's making 100 percent natural and safe pesticides, and the product is already being sold at Home Depot and Walmart. It's the only safe pesticide I've seen to date.
Here are some additional ideas: What do you use right now that could be made with bamboo? Or with biodegradable materials? How about hemp, or recycled bottles? These are all sustainable materials that can be used to make exotic and eco-friendly new products.
If fashion or personal care is truly your passion, find something that hasn't been done before or where you'd have very few competitors. For example: I've never seen a bikini made out of recycled materials or a nail polish that's 100 percent safe.
2.Look for a partner. Before I started my business, I looked everywhere: high-tech meet-ups, green conferences, Craigslist and college competitions. I met with more than 25 people, and none of them felt like a good fit. As exhausting as the search is, you have to be as picky as you'd be marrying someone, because you'll likely be spending a lot more time with your business partner than with your significant other. And unless you have thousands of dollars to pay employees, you'll need to share the load with someone. There are so many things you'll be doing. I'm still looking for a partner because I truly believe it's essential to get your business to great places.
3.Hire someone to build your website. Make sure you know exactly what you want, where you want it, and what you want to happen when visitors click a link. If you have friends who can recommend someone reliable and inexpensive, that's ideal and will save you a lot of time. If not, you can post your job on Craigslist, Odesk.com and vWorker.com.
Make sure your ad states exactly what you want, and ask for a quote. I got quotes ranging from $200 to $5,000. Yes, I went with the $200, and everything I wanted was done. One last thing--if you can manage to work with someone here in the United States, I'd strongly recommend that. I've worked with people outside of the country, and the language barrier and time differences cost me a lot more than I thought they would. It wasn't worth it.
Now it's time to launch. Here are the first things I did when I launched:
1.Send all friends a personalized e-mail telling them what you're doing and asking them to support you and subscribe, and "Digg" it, Facebook it or tweet it.
2.Create a Facebook fan page (for a guide on how to create a page, watch this video), and invite all your friends to join.
3.Create a Twitter account and start following and interacting with people in the industry. An easy way to find them is to search for who's talking about green. You can find out through this site.
4.Send all of your other contacts a personalized e-mail (at the least, include their first name in the e-mail).
5.Start contacting people in the industry and get them talking about your website. Google "top 100 green blogs" and e-mail every one of them; try to find the reporter's contact information instead of sending an e-mail through the blog's "contact us" form.
6.Contact local journalists and radio stations and tell them how your site will be beneficial to their readers or listeners.
7.Contact companies that might be interested in your product or service. One of my favorite resources is the Green Festival. Find one near you and connect with the vendors there. You might even want to have a booth if you have the funds. You can also share a booth with another company and split the cost. One last hint: If you're in the San Francisco area, the best time to have a booth is at the November event.
With time, you'll see that you have too many things to juggle as an entrepreneur, and you need help. The problem will be money to pay for it. My solution has been to post offers for nonpaid internships at local colleges. That doesn't mean an intern will be your personal secretary. You have to be a teacher; you have to guide the intern and be a mentor to him or her. The current economy means it's a good time to find great interns.
A few last thoughts:
Remember that your biggest problem can become your biggest asset. Just hang in there and look for a solution. I searched for a partner for more than a year until I realized I just couldn't wait for a "marriageable" partner. That's when I came up with the idea of doing video reviews.
I researched the idea and realized no one else was doing it. So I found a student who was willing to shoot the reviews. I requested samples from the companies I'd been researching for the previous two years, and we shot about 20 reviews in a couple of weeks. When the videos somehow disappeared from the student's camera, I shed a few tears, then realized I had to buy my own camera equipment and learn how to edit. My website became a bigger success than it probably would have had I stuck with my original idea of simply providing a written description to sell the products.
First lesson learned: If there's a will, there's a way.
EcoBold is only a few months old, but it has come a long way from that first video. Recently, we launched green coupons. Since we're on track to become profitable by the end of the year, maybe one day we will become the Amazon.com of green products.
Steffany Boldrini is the founder of EcoBold.com, which does video reviews of green products and interviews green manufacturers. Boldrini's goal is to make all green products affordable for everyone.
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Victor Hansen Self Publishing
Ever thought about going into self-publishing? I know I have in fact have heard great testimonies from self-publishing authors. Mark Victor Hensen offers some great advice to we inspired self-publish authors to be. Take a good read very helpful, encouraging and enlighting.
Self-Publishing
By Mark Victor Hansen
America Ambassador of Possibly
One of the biggest challenges a self-published author faces is generating awareness and demand for their books. This struggle is not unlike the struggle that many businesses are facing today. Chicken Soup for the Soul was born from humble beginnings as a self-published book. Jack Canfield and I had big dreams for our collection of inspirational and uplifting stories, but unfortunately, we didn't have a very big budget. It took two years for the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book to reach the best-seller list. Because it was self-published, Jack and I had to be very creative, innovative, and effective in how we marketed. Our families were depending on us, and we couldn't afford to fail.
During those two years we experimented with many different forms of marketing and advertising. These are the top 3 techniques that we used to attract the demand necessary to transform our humble self-published book into a dominating million-dollar business empire:
We spoke-up: Jack and I were both (and still are) professional speakers and always used Chicken Soup for the Soul stories during our talks to warm up the crowd and reinforce our lessons. After our talks were over, we would always hear the crowd buzzing about how great the stories were. Even if you aren't a professional speaker, you can utilize this subtle, yet powerful approach! Today, many people use social networking to spread the word, but I still believe that there is nothing more persuasive than an honest referral from a friend. Be sure to always keep a copy of your book with you. If someone finds advice the advice you have given, or a story you have told helpful, you can give them a signed copy of your book. If they enjoy it, they will be sure to tell a friend.
We made key contacts: During those two years Jack and I travelled A LOT. At the time, I did a lot of coaching for BIG sales departments at BIG companies. We inevitably met the who's who within the company. These key contacts helped us to get more speaking engagements and to gain traction with a more powerful demographic. When you begin to acquire high-powered fans (or clients) you will gain more credibility, which makes you instantly more in-demand. If you're in business, make friends with your top competitors, you never know when you'll be able to offer something they can't or vice-versa. You can also use these relationships to create symbiotic marketing campaigns. (Think: Restaurants offering discounts with a movie stub.)
We never compromised our quality: Every page in Chicken Soup for the Soul went through a screening process, even the cartoons. Our book was self-published, and we knew that if we wanted to be in the big leagues, we had to have a big-league quality product. We had to do more than talk Chicken Soup, we had to be Chicken Soup. We were consistent and authentic in how we represented our brand and our message in every aspect of our marketing, our lives and ourselves. Do you use the advice you give in your book? Does your book (or business) have the quality of your most successful competitors?
The truth is that only a handful of self-published books reach the best-sellers list, and only a handful of businesses will reach a Forbes list. This fact doesn't reduce the importance of every book that is self-published or any small business. Hard work, dedication, and passion can take you very far in this world. Don't give up because you don't see success immediately. Remember, it took us two years to reach our goal of best-sellerdom, but today, because of hard work and persistence, we hold the world record for having the most books on a bestsellers list at one time. Don't be discouraged if you don't reach your goal immediately, if you are seeing growth and progress, you will get what you want, just keep working and innovating!
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Self-Publishing
By Mark Victor Hansen
America Ambassador of Possibly
One of the biggest challenges a self-published author faces is generating awareness and demand for their books. This struggle is not unlike the struggle that many businesses are facing today. Chicken Soup for the Soul was born from humble beginnings as a self-published book. Jack Canfield and I had big dreams for our collection of inspirational and uplifting stories, but unfortunately, we didn't have a very big budget. It took two years for the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book to reach the best-seller list. Because it was self-published, Jack and I had to be very creative, innovative, and effective in how we marketed. Our families were depending on us, and we couldn't afford to fail.
During those two years we experimented with many different forms of marketing and advertising. These are the top 3 techniques that we used to attract the demand necessary to transform our humble self-published book into a dominating million-dollar business empire:
We spoke-up: Jack and I were both (and still are) professional speakers and always used Chicken Soup for the Soul stories during our talks to warm up the crowd and reinforce our lessons. After our talks were over, we would always hear the crowd buzzing about how great the stories were. Even if you aren't a professional speaker, you can utilize this subtle, yet powerful approach! Today, many people use social networking to spread the word, but I still believe that there is nothing more persuasive than an honest referral from a friend. Be sure to always keep a copy of your book with you. If someone finds advice the advice you have given, or a story you have told helpful, you can give them a signed copy of your book. If they enjoy it, they will be sure to tell a friend.
We made key contacts: During those two years Jack and I travelled A LOT. At the time, I did a lot of coaching for BIG sales departments at BIG companies. We inevitably met the who's who within the company. These key contacts helped us to get more speaking engagements and to gain traction with a more powerful demographic. When you begin to acquire high-powered fans (or clients) you will gain more credibility, which makes you instantly more in-demand. If you're in business, make friends with your top competitors, you never know when you'll be able to offer something they can't or vice-versa. You can also use these relationships to create symbiotic marketing campaigns. (Think: Restaurants offering discounts with a movie stub.)
We never compromised our quality: Every page in Chicken Soup for the Soul went through a screening process, even the cartoons. Our book was self-published, and we knew that if we wanted to be in the big leagues, we had to have a big-league quality product. We had to do more than talk Chicken Soup, we had to be Chicken Soup. We were consistent and authentic in how we represented our brand and our message in every aspect of our marketing, our lives and ourselves. Do you use the advice you give in your book? Does your book (or business) have the quality of your most successful competitors?
The truth is that only a handful of self-published books reach the best-sellers list, and only a handful of businesses will reach a Forbes list. This fact doesn't reduce the importance of every book that is self-published or any small business. Hard work, dedication, and passion can take you very far in this world. Don't give up because you don't see success immediately. Remember, it took us two years to reach our goal of best-sellerdom, but today, because of hard work and persistence, we hold the world record for having the most books on a bestsellers list at one time. Don't be discouraged if you don't reach your goal immediately, if you are seeing growth and progress, you will get what you want, just keep working and innovating!
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The Art of Delegation
Richard Branson is one of my favorite business mentor. The Art of Delegation is a business read for your business, especially if you have employees.
Delegation is not easy for some people who thrive ego wise of doing things themselves, as your business grows that may not be a good decision or choice to run your company in that fashion.
Richard Branson owns multiple mult- million to billions dollar businesses, his advice and wisdom is priceless.
I am often asked how I manage to keep my finger on the pulse with so many different companies and ideas to think about. This is all about the art of delegation.
From a very early time, when we went from one company to two companies, I realised I couldn't do everything myself. I had to learn the art of delegation and try to find people who are better than me to run the companies – that wasn't that difficult!
Also, finding people who are more managerially-inclined rather than entrepreneurially-inclined was important. So from an early age I would always try to put myself out of business so I would be free to think about how to take the Virgin Group into a new era. One of the jobs was to find a great managing director for the Virgin Group, which I did in Stephen Murphy.
Another important task is to make sure the companies don't get too big too quickly. If anything, we have a bias to keep things smaller rather than larger. The feeling and the way that we run them, with delegation that we push down into the companies, is not a very corporate fashion. We tend to manage our businesses in a much more delegated style, where we empower the managements to manage.
The record company division was quite a good example. Where we had 100 people in a record company. I would go in and ask to see the deputy managing director, the deputy sales manager, the deputy marketing manager and say: "You are now the managing director, the marketing manager, the sales manager of a new company and you can take 50 people from this company and go to another building."
Then when those two companies got to another 100 people each we did it again. In the Notting Hill Gate area we ended up having 18 different record companies. 18 different switchboards too, we didn't try to save on central costs. With the combination of them put together, we had the biggest independent record company in the world – the fifth biggest overall.
We would have never got there if we just had one manager; we couldn't have been creative in that environment. It worked extremely well for us. We haven't managed to do that in all companies ever since, but we try to keep that general feeling as much as we can within the Virgin Group.
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Delegation is not easy for some people who thrive ego wise of doing things themselves, as your business grows that may not be a good decision or choice to run your company in that fashion.
Richard Branson owns multiple mult- million to billions dollar businesses, his advice and wisdom is priceless.
I am often asked how I manage to keep my finger on the pulse with so many different companies and ideas to think about. This is all about the art of delegation.
From a very early time, when we went from one company to two companies, I realised I couldn't do everything myself. I had to learn the art of delegation and try to find people who are better than me to run the companies – that wasn't that difficult!
Also, finding people who are more managerially-inclined rather than entrepreneurially-inclined was important. So from an early age I would always try to put myself out of business so I would be free to think about how to take the Virgin Group into a new era. One of the jobs was to find a great managing director for the Virgin Group, which I did in Stephen Murphy.
Another important task is to make sure the companies don't get too big too quickly. If anything, we have a bias to keep things smaller rather than larger. The feeling and the way that we run them, with delegation that we push down into the companies, is not a very corporate fashion. We tend to manage our businesses in a much more delegated style, where we empower the managements to manage.
The record company division was quite a good example. Where we had 100 people in a record company. I would go in and ask to see the deputy managing director, the deputy sales manager, the deputy marketing manager and say: "You are now the managing director, the marketing manager, the sales manager of a new company and you can take 50 people from this company and go to another building."
Then when those two companies got to another 100 people each we did it again. In the Notting Hill Gate area we ended up having 18 different record companies. 18 different switchboards too, we didn't try to save on central costs. With the combination of them put together, we had the biggest independent record company in the world – the fifth biggest overall.
We would have never got there if we just had one manager; we couldn't have been creative in that environment. It worked extremely well for us. We haven't managed to do that in all companies ever since, but we try to keep that general feeling as much as we can within the Virgin Group.
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Why, When and How to Move Your Business
Randy in this articles talk about business relocation, sometimes the spot your doing business maybe the ultimate location, and sometime you may need to seek out edition or different locations that will boost business in a major way. Take a good read, see if some of Randy's pointview on relocating suite your business needs.
Why, When and How to Move Your Business
Plan carefully to make the process as rewarding and stress-free as possible.
By Randy Myers
July 30, 2010
Print Email Share Get the Mag Weekly Updates Comment
Christine White knew it was time to find a new home for her spa products business, Scandle LLC, when a Japanese distributor reported that some of her candle tins were arriving with rust on them. The culprit? A leaky warehouse roof her landlord in Texas just couldn't get around to fixing.
Denise Mazan knew it was time to move her Culver City, California, dance studio when her landlord tried to raise her rent and Mazan, inspired to look for a better deal, found that she could lease space nearby that was almost three times bigger and cost $1 less per square foot.
Businesses move for lots of reasons--to accommodate growth, save money, get closer to customers or vendors, maybe just enjoy a nicer neighborhood. But it can be stressful for employees (who may balk if faced with a longer commute) and for customers (who may not find the new location convenient). Even a move designed to save money will trigger short-term costs, from hiring movers to finishing and furnishing the new space.
Moving can also be a logistical challenge filled with unexpected pitfalls. Junction Networks, a VoIP phone system provider based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, was just about to move earlier this year when it discovered, at the last minute, that the building it had chosen was not wired for internet service. Costs for wiring were prohibitive, so it had to pull out of the deal and hastily find another space.
Business owners who've gone through the moving process cite three keys to a successful move. The first is to be realistic about what you can afford. "Make sure you have enough money," stresses Stephanie Somogyi Miller, president of public relations firm Spread PR , a Miller/Hamilton company in New York City. "Just because you have a good six months does not mean you can support a new space for a three-year lease."
Miller stayed in her 400-square-foot office in Manhattan's Murray Hill neighborhood until it was "bursting at the seams." She moved her company in May to a 1,000-square-foot location on West 39th Street.
The second key to a successful move is to do your homework before settling on a new location. When Wendy Diamond, owner of Flag Fables Inc., a retailer of outdoor decorative products, realized that her previous location was becoming too small and the neighborhood too unsafe, she spent three years vetting alternatives. She finally moved to her current location in West Springfield, Massachusetts, in late 2007. Before uprooting her company, though, she drafted a list of requirements for a new location: a safe retail environment, better visibility from the street, more passing traffic, and room for her manufacturing, warehousing and shipping operations--all at a price that made sense for her budget.
To minimize the risk of choosing the wrong space, Diamond assessed as many hard facts as she could for each property she visited, including traffic numbers, proximity to major highways, price per square foot, NNN costs (real estate lingo for property taxes, insurance and operating expenses on buildings offering "triple net lease" terms), estimated build-out costs, the landlord's reputation, the presence of adjacent stores and businesses, and space for growth. She ultimately chose to lease a 3,300-square-foot facility that met all of her search criteria.
The final key to a successful move is planning the move itself. Prasad Thammineni, co-founder and CEO of OfficeDrop , a document-scanning company, created a Google Docs spreadsheet before moving his company from Waltham, Massachusetts, to nearby Cambridge. The spreadsheet "broke down specific categories and responsibilities for each employee, covering everything from coffee mugs to the change of our address on our website," reports Healy Jones, OfficeDrop's vice president of marketing. "We referenced this plan before, during and after the move, and it was an incredibly effective guide to keep things going smoothly."
To ensure uninterrupted receipt of its customers' documents, OfficeDrop arranged to have mail delivered to both its old and new locations for two weeks before and after the move. It also established internet and phone service to the new site prior to the move, and stationed an employee there--online and with live phone service--during the move itself.
Making sure phone and internet connections work before the move is important, confirms Joshua Kelly, chief operating officer of Fine Design Group , a digital branding and Web design firm with two West Coast locations. His company endured several months of sporadic video-conferencing and VoIP phone service failures after moving into its San Francisco office last year. "Do not skimp on the up-front cost of IT advice if connectivity is important to your business," Kelly says.
Moving your business can be an exciting and important step in its long-term growth, so plan carefully to make the move as rewarding and stress-free as possible.
© 2010 Business on Main
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
Why, When and How to Move Your Business
Plan carefully to make the process as rewarding and stress-free as possible.
By Randy Myers
July 30, 2010
Print Email Share Get the Mag Weekly Updates Comment
Christine White knew it was time to find a new home for her spa products business, Scandle LLC, when a Japanese distributor reported that some of her candle tins were arriving with rust on them. The culprit? A leaky warehouse roof her landlord in Texas just couldn't get around to fixing.
Denise Mazan knew it was time to move her Culver City, California, dance studio when her landlord tried to raise her rent and Mazan, inspired to look for a better deal, found that she could lease space nearby that was almost three times bigger and cost $1 less per square foot.
Businesses move for lots of reasons--to accommodate growth, save money, get closer to customers or vendors, maybe just enjoy a nicer neighborhood. But it can be stressful for employees (who may balk if faced with a longer commute) and for customers (who may not find the new location convenient). Even a move designed to save money will trigger short-term costs, from hiring movers to finishing and furnishing the new space.
Moving can also be a logistical challenge filled with unexpected pitfalls. Junction Networks, a VoIP phone system provider based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, was just about to move earlier this year when it discovered, at the last minute, that the building it had chosen was not wired for internet service. Costs for wiring were prohibitive, so it had to pull out of the deal and hastily find another space.
Business owners who've gone through the moving process cite three keys to a successful move. The first is to be realistic about what you can afford. "Make sure you have enough money," stresses Stephanie Somogyi Miller, president of public relations firm Spread PR , a Miller/Hamilton company in New York City. "Just because you have a good six months does not mean you can support a new space for a three-year lease."
Miller stayed in her 400-square-foot office in Manhattan's Murray Hill neighborhood until it was "bursting at the seams." She moved her company in May to a 1,000-square-foot location on West 39th Street.
The second key to a successful move is to do your homework before settling on a new location. When Wendy Diamond, owner of Flag Fables Inc., a retailer of outdoor decorative products, realized that her previous location was becoming too small and the neighborhood too unsafe, she spent three years vetting alternatives. She finally moved to her current location in West Springfield, Massachusetts, in late 2007. Before uprooting her company, though, she drafted a list of requirements for a new location: a safe retail environment, better visibility from the street, more passing traffic, and room for her manufacturing, warehousing and shipping operations--all at a price that made sense for her budget.
To minimize the risk of choosing the wrong space, Diamond assessed as many hard facts as she could for each property she visited, including traffic numbers, proximity to major highways, price per square foot, NNN costs (real estate lingo for property taxes, insurance and operating expenses on buildings offering "triple net lease" terms), estimated build-out costs, the landlord's reputation, the presence of adjacent stores and businesses, and space for growth. She ultimately chose to lease a 3,300-square-foot facility that met all of her search criteria.
The final key to a successful move is planning the move itself. Prasad Thammineni, co-founder and CEO of OfficeDrop , a document-scanning company, created a Google Docs spreadsheet before moving his company from Waltham, Massachusetts, to nearby Cambridge. The spreadsheet "broke down specific categories and responsibilities for each employee, covering everything from coffee mugs to the change of our address on our website," reports Healy Jones, OfficeDrop's vice president of marketing. "We referenced this plan before, during and after the move, and it was an incredibly effective guide to keep things going smoothly."
To ensure uninterrupted receipt of its customers' documents, OfficeDrop arranged to have mail delivered to both its old and new locations for two weeks before and after the move. It also established internet and phone service to the new site prior to the move, and stationed an employee there--online and with live phone service--during the move itself.
Making sure phone and internet connections work before the move is important, confirms Joshua Kelly, chief operating officer of Fine Design Group , a digital branding and Web design firm with two West Coast locations. His company endured several months of sporadic video-conferencing and VoIP phone service failures after moving into its San Francisco office last year. "Do not skimp on the up-front cost of IT advice if connectivity is important to your business," Kelly says.
Moving your business can be an exciting and important step in its long-term growth, so plan carefully to make the move as rewarding and stress-free as possible.
© 2010 Business on Main
A WINNER NEVER QUITS AND A QUITTER NEVER WINNER-YOU ARE A WINNER!
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